The Central European Summer School for Conflict Resolution, a.k.a. CESS-CR, was inspired by the pioneer work of Robert P. Birt in the field of conflict resolution at the Ridgewood Foundation for Community-based Conflict Resolution (Canada) and evolved out of the program for Community-Based Conflict Resolution – CBCR (Austria).
The first CESS-CR was held in 2001 in Loschberg, Lower Austria, under the leadership of R. P. Birt. The CESS-CR was held annually in Salzburg from 2002 to 2009. Starting in 2010, the CESS-CR will be held on an itinerant basis.
The CESS-CR gatherings have thus far included participants from Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Wales/UK, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Rumania, the Netherlands, Egypt, Nigeria, Lebanon, Israel, Nepal, Bhutan, DR of Congo, Afghanistan, Australia, Germany and Austria.